The Carolina Hurricanes rallied from an awful slump early in the season. A second-half surge got them comfortably into the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals before running out of gas against eventual champion Pittsburgh.The architect of this rally was interim coach Paul Maurice, who replaced Peter Laviolette in December. Monday, the organization finally got around to rewarding Maurice for his work.
Maurice gets a three-year contract to stay on as Carolina's coach, and his coaching staff will remain intact.
"When Paul came in, he did a really good job of bringing the coaching staff together," said team general manager Jim Rutherford. "They had good chemistry, and the delegation of certain areas where everybody felt they had an important role in the staff worked well."The only surprise is that it took so long for this move to be made.
In defense of Rutherford, he's a very good general manager, and he hasn't had this job for so many years because he makes knee-jerk decisions and is never thorough about anything.
Maurice did a superb job once he was hired, but it was his 2003 dismissal in Carolina that paved the way for Laviolette to take the team to a Stanley Cup championship in 2006. Also, Maurice was not exactly successful as coach in Toronto.
For some reason, however, this change of pace worked for the Hurricanes. Now Maurice has the security of a three-year contract as he tries to lead the Hurricanes even farther.
